Somebody Stop the Pope – 100



Episode 100

31. The Old Man and the Dwarf

1.

The morning after the company dinner.

Thanks to the divine power that quietly expelled the accumulated intoxication throughout the night there was no hangover.

Still my grandmother made me some buckwheat soup so all the members who attended the dinner ate well and went to work at the shrine.

Min-soo and Baek Seol-hwa went to work at Min-soo’s company in Hapjeong. They said there was something to discuss regarding the MeTube content. So they sent In-wook there as a representative of our school.

The thing to keep in mind here is that today is Sunday.

“I ran until dawn… and made him work on weekends too… what a truly evil boss… I’ll definitely report him to the Ministry of Labor…”

“Stop whining when you don’t even have a hangover. And what happened to our sect yesterday? Should we leave the temple empty?”

“Phew… Did I do that?”

“I can hear everything.”

“I’m telling you so that you can all hear Your Majesty. Don’t you know Warabel? Warabel. When in Rome follow Roman law. When you come to Earth follow Earth’s law.”

I never thought I would hear such words from an alien in my lifetime.

Luna would probably adapt perfectly within a month no matter what world she was thrown into.

I guarantee it.

I continued speaking lightly ignoring Luna’s complaints.

“Today we’ll just give the new recruits basic training and then send them to work maintaining order within the Holy Land.”

“Does that mean I should go on patrol?”

“This is the perfect time to boost your self-esteem. Let’s do this while taking a day off.”

“You saw the crowd outside when you came in earlier right? No matter how much I think about it it doesn’t seem like they’re resting… Well it’s His Majesty’s orders. Then I’ll go get ready quickly.”

“Mr. Oh Jun-woo must be taken with you as well. He will now be working for the Limen Sect so we should expose him to the media as Oh Jun-woo of the Limen Sect not the Hive Guild. There will be a lot of reporters there so it will be effective.”

If you keep your face stamped like this you will be able to continue working in our church in the future.

They weren’t just S-class hunters rolling around and once they came into my arms I had no intention of letting them go.

Luna who noticed my hidden plan narrowed her eyes and said.

“They say on Earth that even Satan would cry when he saw something like that?”

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“If you are Satan then you are the devil. How dare you compare the Pope you serve to the devil? How dare you blaspheme the Pope in the temple?”

“It’s true that many demons cried in front of the Pope. It’s not wrong. Anyway I’ll take Junwoo with me. That’s all for now.”

Luna walked with light steps towards the place where the new recruits were waiting.

Just look at how he doesn’t lose a single word until the very end.

The authority of the Pope is at its lowest.

“Leo you just finish compiling the Bible and then rest.”

“Your Majesty I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

At Leo’s request.

Are you asking me to upgrade my wifi?

I nodded and Leo spoke politely.

“I would like permission to go out.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Do you remember the Hope Orphanage that Your Majesty visited last time? Today the area around the Holy Land is somewhat noisy and there are no pressing plans so I would like to visit.”

The daycare center where I personally changed the director.

I heard from Director Kim that the government has temporarily provided additional manpower.

As a child-loving Leo he couldn’t help but be concerned about Hope Orphanage.

“From now on don’t ask permission to do that.”

“thank you.”

“You always drive. You know what I mean?”

If you run around like in Eden you’ll get into a big accident. Even when I came up to Seoul in a hurry last time there were strange rumors on the internet like ‘A bipedal monster has appeared!’ so if you’re not in a hurry it’s better to pay attention to people.

“Yes I will keep that in mind.”

“Yeah. You got your driver’s license. As for the car… I think you can use the car that Minsu lent you.”

For reference both Leo and Luna are currently legally Korean. Since they had no ‘citizenship’ on Earth in the first place there wasn’t really any problem.

Today I was planning to spend the whole day at the temple taking care of internal affairs so there was no need for the officers to remain around the temple.

I was planning to have Luna patrol for a while and then have her leave work in the afternoon.

But it’s still the weekend after all.

“Then I will also go and report to work.”

“Yeah. Thanks for your hard work.”

Leo bowed politely and headed to his workshop in the basement.

The Bible translation work that had been ongoing since Leo came to Earth was almost finished. If he had been allowed to devote all his time to the Bible translation it would have been finished much sooner but he had so many places to go.

Still they say they will be able to provide Korean-translated Bibles to believers next month. The most urgent problem has been solved.

“Phew.”

As I was letting out a small sigh several message windows popped up before my eyes.

[You have a lot of Divinity Points. Please spend them through the shop.]

[You have not yet received the completion reward for the main quest <Cult Expansion – Preparation>.]

As the sect grows the number of system messages in the DLC also increases.

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That means the further you go the more things you have to worry about.

I was planning to spend my Divinity Points anyway but I thought I should take this opportunity to work on my inner strength which I had been putting off.

I closed the message window for a moment and slowly headed to my office.

I have already conveyed my opinion on a friendly war with China to President Seo this morning so I think the mood will soon begin to flow in a direction that will allow a friendly war to take place.

It was clear that by then we would not be able to enjoy the somewhat noisy peace we have now.

Anyway it was true that those Chinese guys were very hands-on.

It was difficult to expect a smooth and peaceful outcome like in Japan where they would simply hold the sword and receive applause.

furthermore

‘The Purifiers will definitely move together.’

One way or another the Purifiers’ clutches will reach out.

In the worst case scenario a war situation could break out but that would only be the worst case scenario.

This is something that can be done if we take the initiative here first.

“So let’s get this done quickly.”

I know from what I did last time but managing a church is a very complicated task no matter how you use the system.

I entered the office quietly.

2.

The first thing I did when I sat down at my desk in my office was to claim my quest reward.

[You have completed the main quest <Cult Expansion – Preparation>.]

[As a reward you will receive <10000 Holy Points> and <Choice of Holy Relic>.]

[You can summon a relic using the <Relic Selection Ticket>. Additional sacred points may be consumed depending on the importance of the relic.]

[Currently held divine points: 47000 points]

“What good is it if you just get a lot of points?”

It is true that the amount of points earned has increased exponentially compared to the early days of Return but the prices of items in the DLC shop have also increased accordingly.

I didn’t know that market principles like system stores would be applied.

Of course some features were still on the cheap side but the saying “cheap is expensive” seems to be used in situations like this. The lower the price the less effective it was.

In this case the best thing to do would be to raise the level of the sanctuary without any hesitation.

[In order to raise the level of the sanctuary the number of sanctuary priests belonging to the order must exceed 30.]

I was caught up in a restriction I had never seen before.

This means that it requires its own ‘build-up’ process like a strategy simulation game.

It seemed that the system was trying to secure its own causality through these elements.

“It’s like being a tycoon.”

It’s similar to existing tycoon games in that you have to make your new religious order the best in the world… but it’s still complicated.

In the beginning it had a somewhat cute taste but as time went by the scale grew and there were more things to pay attention to.

In fact this is something that only people with the right aptitude can do well.

Although I am the Pope I was practically a pantied Pope in Eden because most of the practical work of running the church was handled by the archbishops who had management skills.

For example Archbishop Laparte who was the Vatican’s Secretary of State.

My grandfather was a very nosy man who would nag me all the time but I felt very secure when he was around.

[Your Lordship gives you a trust.]

“Should I send it to you?”

“It’s a surprise.”

『Come to think of it it’s about time Siwoo needed a proper organization. I think it would be a good idea to send the necessary personnel in advance before the passage becomes unstable.』

Limen’s voice rang in my ears. I didn’t expect him to give me oracles two days in a row after he even appeared yesterday.

It certainly seemed like he had regained some of his composure.

“Who are you sending?”

“The kid that Siwoo was thinking of just now.”

“So Limen. To you he may be a child but to me he’s just a grandfather… No. So are you going to send Archbishop Lapart?”

『Because it seems necessary to me. Even without that Siwoo is probably busy chasing down enemies right now so it’s impossible for him to run the sect that has grown so much by himself. I’m not ignoring Siwoo but… honestly Siwoo you never received any management lessons in Eden right? The same goes for Earth.』

I was speechless at the weighty facts that Limen threw out.

This is so sad I can’t live without a high school diploma.

『Of course compared to Eden Earth is a more civilized society in many ways. The organization of the religious order must also be much more refined and detailed. But wasn’t Siwoo already preparing that?』

“That’s true.”

I plan to introduce people through CEO Choi. However that person is only a businessman and cannot help but have a distance from religious organizations.

If we can give modern management the color of the Limen Order through Archbishop Laparte it will be possible to manage the organization more easily.

“Even so Rapart prayed to me.”

“what?”

“I hope His Majesty is happy in his hometown. If this old man can help I’ll be happy to go running to him at any time. He’s a very affectionate boy isn’t he?”

Considering that Archbishop Lapart is 68 years old the title ‘child’ doesn’t seem appropriate at all. However from Limen’s perspective it wasn’t much different so let’s just ignore this part.

I scratched my chin for a moment after hearing Limen’s suggestion.

It is certainly a good card. If we add the management that will be introduced through Archbishop Lapart and CEO Choi Seo-jin the church will be organized at a rapid pace.

I couldn’t continue to lead the church in this old-fashioned way forever.

Unless you’re a superhuman who can do everything on your own it’s only right to accept Limen’s offer.

But there is one thing that is disappointing here.

“I originally wanted to bring one of the dwarves belonging to the Holy See. The craftsmen of Earth are still not able to properly refine otherworldly metals like mithril. I also want to equip our new recruits with good equipment.”

“Who is the dwarf?”

“Toby Ironbeard. He always said he wanted to follow me back to Earth.”

There was only one reason.

I once said at a drinking party ‘There is a place on Earth called the World Beer Bar where you can drink beers from all over the world.’

From then on Toby became interested in the world called Earth and asked me to take him back with me.

He was also a blacksmith whose skills were ranked among the top three in the Vatican so he was one of the people I really wanted to bring in.

“…Hmm it might be a little tight.”

“Isn’t that too much for two?”

『Rather than saying that the two of them are too much… if we really have to pick it’s Ironbeard that’s the problem. The dwarves themselves aren’t the original race of Earth so the price is bound to be high. I’ll check it out.』

[Your Majesty is requesting a <Causality Compliance Review> for the relevant agenda item. Please wait a moment.]

After a while.

A message with the results appeared before my eyes.

[The price to be paid is set to the <Divine Points> you have.]

[<Laparte Sante: 3500 points>]

[<Toby Ironbeard: 30000 points>]

“What’s the price…”

Considering that the sacred points paid to bring Luna here was 5000 Toby’s price is a whopping 30000 which is 6 times more.

This was a score that could only be obtained by clearing the main quest three times this time.

『If you think it’s absolutely necessary I think it would be better to make a decision quickly Siu. It wouldn’t be strange if the passage between dimensions suddenly closed.』

“Then there’s nothing we can do about it.”

『Isn’t the price I’m paying a bit high? It’s a shame that I’m the craftsman among humans…』

“I’ll pay the price. Limen. Bring them both.”

What are you going to do with your divine points?

This is when you use it sparingly.